Pitfalls and opportunities in quantitative fluorescence-based nanomedicine studies – A commentary

Fluorescence-based techniques are prevalent in studies of nanomedicine-targeting to cells and tissues. However, fluorescence-based rarely quantitative, thus prohibiting direct comparisons nanomedicine-performance across studies. With this Commentary, we aim provoke critical thinking about experimental design by treating some often-overlooked pitfalls ‘quantitative’ experimentation. Focusing on fluorescence-labeled nanoparticles, cover mechanisms like solvent-interactions fluorophore-dissociation, which disqualify the assumption that ‘a higher fluorescence readout’ translates directly better targeting efficacy’. departure recent literature, propose guidelines for circumventing these tissue-accumulation cell-uptake, covering bulk solution measurements, microscopy, flow cytometry, infrared imaging. this, hope lay a foundation more ‘quantitative thinking’ during design, enabling (for example) estimation reporting actual numbers fluorescent nanoparticles accumulated organs.